My next game in this league is against a "mech-eldar" army, so my 'Game 2' opponent who-has-already-lost-to-him, told me:

Lotsa Falcons with the Holo-rocks, Vector-Engines, switch-activated hydraulics, 9 inch rims, BOSE stereo, fur-lined dash-board, the works. All that crap that adds up to 'glances only', with re-rolled results, on two dice, taking the nicer result. -- you know what I mean. Plenty of provolone and cheddar.

I wouldn't even play to destroy those Falcons. Shake em till Turn 6 and frag everything else. Certainly shoot at stunned vehicles when possible, but otherwise, plan your list around everything else his army will have.

So against an Eldar list you need worry about:
Harlequins - shoot em with Rapid Fire. Not too difficult if you remember their crazy charge range.

Jetbikes - Eldar can have basic jetbikes doing the JSJ grind like we do only for their troops slots instead of Elites. They can also have Fast Attack Shining Spears, but if your opponent is a super cheese monster type player, you probably won't see them. Still, a modicum of MEq slaying would benefit you greatly.

Swarms of Guardians - Eldar can field upwards of 120 Guardians in their troop slots with attached support platforms. Maintain your volume of fire.

Fire Dragons - These guys hurt less as we run with Skimmers too, but 5-6 melta shots coming from a shaken falcon you just got done discounting can be a deal breaker. Remember that shaken falcons are still dangerous!

I'd leave the stealths and Ethereal (snicker snicker) at home along with the Vespids. Run the BASS, Hammerheads (with ion), a few (2-3) FoF teams with a decent sized Kroot-bump to prevent those nasty jetbike Autarchs from fragging your BASSes into slag turn two... flavor with Deathrains to taste.

Honestly, a Tau army should very rarely have to deal with the Falcon shooting, as they're quite easy for even a single or pair of Death Rain suits to keep shaken the entire game. Rather, the nasty part will be dealing with the cargo that they will (sadly almost invariably) bring unscathed to your doorstep. Harlequins and Scorpions can wreak havoc by charging your lines and a Fire Dragon drop is dangerous to vehicles and a death sentence for most battlesuit teams.

Deploying your kroot strategically can help alleviate the danger of those assault units. i.e. between the line of approach for the Falcon and your more key units (such as broadsides or a major FW line), but at least 6" away from what they're protecting. Personally, I prefer smaller squads of Kroot. Small enough that they're likely to break in any serious assault on the first round they're charged, giving you a chance to shoot at whatever is headed your way before it ties up your fire base.

Another thing that may be important to consider is protecting yourself from Tank Shocking, given that your army includes mostly unmounted, non-vehicle models. Crisis teams, Stealthies and GDS (with their merely average leadership, long fall back move, and tendancy to play closer to the board edge) are especially vulnerable to this, although the ethereal will definitely help for the Crisis and Stealth teams, if you can keep him alive. Though with a 24" move, his skimmers could try to circle around your defenses and draw a bead on him.

Skimmer walls (have to be at least armor 12 though) can help keep a shaken falcon from cutting a 24" swatch across your lines. And, in the worst case scenario, 3 pts worth of EMP grenades on a Shas'ui can give you death or glory attack with a straight 50% chance to glance after the auto-hit. The first time your opponent loses a 200+ point tank to a 23 point Shas'ui, he might think twice before trying that tactic again.

Heh. I didn't get to check the board's response before I played the guy this morning.

jpgil_galad wrote:Honestly, a Tau army should very rarely have to deal with the Falcon shooting, as they're quite easy for even a single or pair of Death Rain suits to keep shaken the entire game. Rather, the nasty part will be dealing with the cargo that they will (sadly almost invariably) bring unscathed to your doorstep. Harlequins and Scorpions can wreak havoc by charging your lines and a Fire Dragon drop is dangerous to vehicles and a death sentence for most battlesuit teams.

I went with Fireknives. Next time though, Deathrains.

He only had firedragons and guardians for the two transports. All else was 2 FPS, a falcon, Jetbikes and vipers.

The fire dragons did prove too tough to finish off, as they had a hill for protection. They fell into the one table quarter and cost me 500 points. Grr.

I did not include kroot as they have sorry guns that can't hurt tanks.

jpgil_galad wrote: And, in the worst case scenario, 3 pts worth of EMP grenades on a Shas'ui can give you death or glory attack with a straight 50% chance to glance after the auto-hit. The first time your opponent loses a 200+ point tank to a 23 point Shas'ui, he might think twice before trying that tactic again.

Smack! Duh, I can't believe I left out the EMPs. Duh.

I'll be typing up a Batrep and posting in the appropriate 'room.'

onlainari:
The FWs did do well. And it's okay, I wasn't looking for a total list build.

by the way, if you're planning on "just shaking the falcons", you should not be looking at the average number of glances, but the chance of getting atleast 1 glance (1 minus chance to not glance at all). the ion cannon has a larger mean #glances, but you only need 1 glance to shake.